Health minister and Dr. Deena Hinshaw to update Albertans on COVID-19
CBC
Health Minister Jason Copping and Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, will deliver a COVID-19 update Thursday, as wastewater surveillance data shows signs of rising transmission.
Copping and Hinshaw will speak at 3:30 p.m. MT. Watch it live here.
During last week's COVID-19 update, Copping cautioned that transmission rates appeared to be on the rise with wastewater data trending upwards in communities across the province including Edmonton and Calgary.
Copping hesitated to say if the province is headed for a sixth wave but said the novel coronavirus was finding more opportunities to spread.
Lab testing has found that about 80 per cent of positive cases in Alberta are the Omicron BA.2 subvariant, making it the dominant strain of coronavirus in the province.
As of Monday, the daily positivity rate of PCR tests was 32.05 per cent. The weekly rolling average as of Monday was 26.36 per cent.
The province reported 30 new COVID-19 deaths between March 29 and April 4, including a man in his 20s in South zone and a woman in her 30s in the Edmonton zone.
A total of 4,104 Albertans have died of COVID-19.
As of Monday, there were 990 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 44 patients in intensive care, compared to 964 in hospital with 47 in ICU the week before.
There were 5,549 new cases reported between March 29 and April 4. The case count includes only those who test positive on a PCR test, which most Albertans can't access.
The government has now moved to a once-a-week reporting schedule but this will be Hinshaw's first news conference since March 23.
She took some time off to be with her family, and earlier this week was testifying in court in defence of the public measures she instituted in a bid to control the spread of COVID-19, as a group of plaintiffs seek to have Alberta's pandemic-related restrictions ruled unconstitutional.
The legal challenge taking place in the Court of Queen's Bench in Calgary is ongoing.
On Monday, Alberta Health Services announced the departure of Dr. Verna Yiu as president and CEO less than a year after she received a two-year contract extension.
Saskatchewan road crews and residents alike are getting ready for another icy blast of winter this weekend.
Student leaders at the University of Alberta are criticizing the school's plan to hike tuition — particularly for international students.
Environment Canada says a new fall storm will bring winds gusting up to 110 km/h to southwestern British Columbia on Friday, potentially causing more outages and travel disruption.
Environment Canada says strong winds could cause damage to roofs and windows in P.E.I.'s Kings County and Prince County this weekend, with power outages possible from fallen tree branches.
City council has approved a 3.6 per cent increase in municipal property taxes for next year. The decision follows five days of debate on adjustments to next year's civic budget.
Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish has resigned from the Peel Police Service Board.
Public health in Yellowknife is reducing some services over the holiday season due to staffing shortages.
Two premiers are asking Ottawa to cover the provincial cost of the Trudeau government's promised tax holiday.
Former Alberta MLA Derek Fildebrandt fist-pumped from the prisoner's box as a Calgary judge acquitted him on all four counts of uttering threats to a group of 13- and 14-year-old boys whom he chased in a truck through his southwest neighbourhood last spring.
Buddhist monks and nuns who live in eastern Prince Edward Island say they were disappointed to hear some of the concerns expressed at a planning meeting this past week in the Town of Three Rivers.
The Alberta government reiterated its plans Friday to move forward on a passenger rail system for the province, with a goal to finish its master plan by summer 2025.